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Canada cuts Dal Colle, three others for final 22-man roster

Michael Dal Colle of Team Canada looks for a pass against Team Russia during a pre-tournament exhibition game ahead of the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Friday December 19, 2014. (Dave Abel/QMI Agency)

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Michael Dal Colle is averaging two points per game with the Oshawa Generals this season.

It wasn’t enough.

Jason Dickinson has adopted a leadership role as captain of the Guelph Storm.

It wasn’t enough.

Rourke Chartier has scored 32 goals in 30 games for the Kelowna Rockets in 2014-15.

It wasn’t enough.

The same was true for Red Deer Rebels defenceman Haydn Fleury who, like those other three aforementioned players, received the devastating news late Friday night that they’d been cut.

All four had played earlier that night in Canada’s 2-1 overtime loss to Russia in an exhibition contest at the Air Canada Centre. And all four were understandably emotional, their eyes welling up as they left the team’s downtown Toronto hotel.

“I thought I had a pretty good camp,” said Dal Colle, who was selected fifth overall by the New York Islanders in the 2014 NHL entry draft. “I thought I did well. But they wanted to go in a different direction.

“They have a lot of depth here. I think I’m having a pretty good year, but they wanted to go in a different direction.”

That Team Canada could release four individuals who, let’s face it, have combined for some very impressive numbers with their respective junior teams is an indication of the cache of talent coach Benoit Groulx has at his disposal.

Groulx said the team was looking for a number of qualities in whittling down to the final 22-man roster: size, speed and aggressiveness being at the forefront of those.

Whether the Team Canada brass has found the proper mix to end its five-tournament gold-medal dry spell remains to be seen. In any event, after Friday’s moves, here is Canada’s complete lineup, including potential combinations and defence pairings.

Forwards (13)

Nic Petan-Connor McDavid-Curtis Lazar

Max Domi-Sam Reinhart-Anthony Duclair

Nick Ritchie-Nick Paul-Brayden Point

Lawson Crouse-Frederik Gauthier-Jake Virtanen

Robbie Fabbri

Defence (7)

Darnell Nurse-Shea Theodore

Samuel Morin-Madison Bowey

Josh Morrissey-Joe Hicketts

Dillon Heatherington

Goal (2)

Zachary Fucale

Eric Comrie

NET GAINS, PART I

Team Canada goalie Zach Fucale needs to be better, at least when it comes to freezing pucks.

Sure, Canada’s 2-1 overtime loss was just an exhibition game. But the fact that both Russian goals came off plays in which Fucale exhibited poor rebound control certainly should be cause for concern. At least that’s what you would think.

But Groulx didn’t agree with that suggestion and was quick to come to the defence of his goalie.

“It’s hard when you don’t get a lot of shots,” Groulx said. “I thought he played a good game.”

Midway through the second period, Vladislav Kamenev took a weak fluttering shot on Fucale. Instead of catching the puck, the Canadian goalie awkwardly batted it away, leading to Sam Reinhart’s “own goal” moments later.

The goal was awarded to Russia’s Sergey Tolchinsky, but that’s not the point here. Had Fucale snatched the puck, there would never have been a goal.

And he knows it.

“I need to catch that. I realize that,” Fucale said afterward.

With Russian goalie Ilya Sorokin turning in a spectacular performance at the other end of the ice, the importance of goaltending in this tournament once again was front and centre. Simply put, mistakes like the one Fucale made on the Tolchinski goal will be lethal once the preliminary round starts.

And the fact that another Fucale juicy rebound led to the winning goal by Russia’s Alexander Sharov at 3:41 of overtime only puts the spotlight on Canadian goaltending that much more.

When you look at where Canadian goalies have ranked in previous tournaments over the past decade, the thread between stopping pucks and winning gold medals becomes even more obvious than usual.

During Canada’s run of five consecutive gold medals, the team’s goalies ranked first from 2005-08 and second in ‘09. In Canada’s subsequent five-tournament gold-medal dry spell, the goaltending finished fourth (2010), eighth (‘11), second (‘12), fifth (‘13) and sixth (‘14).

Canada outshot the Russians 53-21 yet lost. Exhibition or not, the scoreboard is always the bottom line, not the shot clock.

PIPE DREAMS, PART II

It was an eventful day for Fucale, to say the least.

About seven hours before he got to start against Russia, Fucale was traded by the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL to the Quebec Remparts along with defenceman Matt Murphy and a 2015 fifth-round pick in exchange for goalie Eric Brassard and four draft picks - two first-rounders (2016 and 2018), a second-rounder (‘18) and third-rounder (‘16).

Fucale is not the first Canadian world junior player to be traded this month. A day before he arrived in Toronto for training camp, defenceman Josh Morrissey, 19, was dealt to the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL after three-plus years with the Prince Albert Raiders.

LAST MINUTE OF PLAY

It’s the final Friday night before Christmas, a popular time for boozy parties and last minute shopping - not necessarily in that order.

Taking that into account - along with the fact that this was an exhibition game - it would have been understandable, even expected, if there were several thousand empty seats at the Air Canada Centre.

Not so. Instead, the teams played in front of a packed house - and a vocal one at that. The attendance of 18,114 was almost to capacity.

Maybe it’s the fact that tickets were reasonably priced. Or that this was the only time many families could afford to watch hockey at the ACC.

Whatever the case, the size of the throng - coupled with the accompanying decibel level - bodes well for the tournament, which kicks off Dec. 26 in both Toronto and Montreal.